Ninja of Santoryu: Shichibukai of the Crescent Moon Kingdom
by Skillet Lord
Summary: While the Fourth Great Shinobi War rages on, Naruto and a team of comrades have been assigned to bodyguard the foolish prince of Crescent Moon and his spoiled son while they return home from vacation. This will be easier said than done though, as their enemies also have their sights set on Crescent Moon, and will go to any means to obtain it. Side Story to Ninja of Santoryu.
1. Two Foolish Princes

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or One Piece. If I did then paying for college would definitely be a hell of a lot easier.**

 **Ikō: So how exactly is college going for you Skillet?**

 **Skillet: Stressful and vomit inducing. So basically it's just like high school except more homework and the ability to drive around a bit more.**

 **Side Story: Shichibukai of the Crescent Moon Kingdom**

 **Chapter 1: Two Foolish Princes**

* * *

Late at night, several Konoha chunin were on sentry duty outside the village walls. As all five of the great villages were now in the middle of the Fourth Great Shinobi War with the Santatsu Foundation after having finally disbanded the Akatsuki, and were now on very high alert as a result. The head of the sentry duty, Division 9 tokubetsu jounin Aoba Yamashiro noticed a trade caravan heading down the road to Konoha.

"It's just a trade caravan. Stand down."

"Not so fast! For all we know it's a group of Santatsu spies that have disguised themselves as a caravan. Pull it over." Aoba said before running up to the caravan and halting it in the middle of the road. It was then he noticed the company insignia painted onto its side "The Terran Group? State your business!"

Not bothering to step outside the caravan, the man inside spoke in a gravely voice "There's no reason to be suspicious Konoha-nin. I'm the CEO of the Terran Group and the former Captain of Division 2. I'm simply here to discuss business with the Yondaime Hokage!"

"The Yondaime has chosen to not retake the throne and choose the Godaime within the next month. There should be no reason to seek any sort of business relationship with him. Besides, the last person to seek out something like this from him was Gatō, and he was on of the Santatsu Shogun responsible for the Night of Kyuubi." Aoba stated his reasoning to the CEO.

"I assure you there's no reason to be suspicious!"

"Then you would have no issue with us investigating the contents of your caravan? Rishi, Gilda, search it for anything suspicious!" Aoba ordered his two subordinates, who followed the order and went behind the caravan to look around. However things got more than suspicious when the chunin tumbled back in the form of corpses, each with massive shards of glass sticking out of their head. Upon seeing this, the rest of the guard got into fighting stances while the enemy appeared.

He was tan skinned man with blue hair that was styled into a pompadour with a long braid coming around the back, and blazing yellow eyes. He wore a surgical mask that covered up the lower half of his face, a slightly tinted monocle, and a white high-collared robe with lighting bolt like blue stitched that clearly identified him as a Santatsu member. All of the guard members charged him, only for their attacks to go right through him as his body transformed into what seemed to be melted glass.

They then suffered a similar fate to their comrades, as he turned his hand into a blade of glass and proceeded to the butcher them with it. After having impaled Aoba through his stomach with the blade, the tokubetsu chunin tried to croak out through his pain "I know that the Santatsu couldn't be to far behind all this. You're a Logia?"

"That's right, I ate the Glass-Glass Fruit, so now I'm a Glass Man. And now as a traitor to Konoha, you shall fall to the hand of the Nitatsu, Dentist Salon." The man said his name, only to find that Aoba was now having trouble holding in his laughter at the sound of it. As a result he threw Aoba against a nearby tree, before walking over and releasing his mini Den Den Mushi, leaving him to bleed out in the woods with the rest of the guard "It's quite a shame none of them knew Haki isn't it Mr. CEO?"

"Indeed it is Dentist Salon. But I think that me and my employees can handle the trip to Konoha from here. In the meantime you should gather up some Shotatsu and make your way to the Land of Waves. That colony has been rebellious of our rule for long enough since Gatō's death." The CEO said from inside his caravan, while more men appeared from inside and began to drive him further south into the Land of Fire.

All while Dentist Salon watched him further into the woods that the country was famed for, before walking towards his own to the east in the form of the Great Naruto Bridge a mere ten minutes from their point of separation. In front of the bridge stood a statue of its namesake during his first battle against the Santatsu Foundation on the bridge seven years ago "So this is the mighty Cinderface that our Shogun are so interested in. No matter, he's just an obstacle against making Konoha what it should be. He'll fall to us in due time."

* * *

"Well this blows. Why do we have to start this damn mission out in the middle of the dessert?" Naruto said as he trudged through the desserts of the Land of Wind with his team consisting of himself, Tenten Virgo, Chouji Akimichi, Itachi Uchiha. Within the two weeks that the Fourth Great Shinobi War, Naruto had been getting mission after mission being requested to him "15 missions in two weeks. I can't even remember the last time I had to work this much."

"You can't be surprised Naruto; ever since the fall of the Akatsuki you've practically been the face of our village. Not to mention all the extra money you've been getting from all the A and B Rank missions you've been completing got you enough money to get a better apartment for you and Hinata." Tenten brought this up "Not to mention you got some money for your red-light district buddies."

"They did raise him with Sarutobi after all. They were probably the only people who didn't see him as a monster after all." Itachi put his two cents into the conversation, only to get a very harsh glare from Naruto. Itachi accurately predicted the cause of this was the fact that he'd accidentally bleached Naruto's normal red hoodie and bright shade of pink, which just so happened to be the swordsman's least favorite color "Come now, tell me you're not still upset about the pink jacket thing. You could be Chouji right now."

"Too fucking hot. Why am I even on this mission? Wouldn't it make more sense for a chunin like Shino or Konan?" Chouji groaned as his body fat caused him to store a massive amount of heat.

"Because they're all on different missions Chouji-san. I mean with the Santatsu Foundation running around our village has been busier than ever." Tenten explained to the overweight jounin before she and the rest of them noticed a bizarre sight. What was practically a parade of wagons and caravans riding through the dessert right towards them "Is that a mirage? Who would need this many caravans?"

"Our client most likely; but I still question why one would need all the transport we see now." Itachi pondered to himself, before a fat man with long black hair, wearing a blue robe, red hat, and a large quantity of jewelry barged out of one of the caravans.

"You mean this? These are all for my shopping, I come across so many wonderful things on foreign island, and let me tell you Shinobi Island is no different. I just kept buying and buying, and I had all this before I knew it." The large man approached them before stopping to introduce himself "My name is Michiru, the Crown Prince of Crescent Moon. You must be the Shichibukai my Papa hired to protect me."

"Name's Roronoa Naruto, the future Greatest Swordsman in the World. These are my squad members, Chouji, Itachi, and Tenten." Naruto introduced the rest of his team "Your King hired us to make sure you got back safely from your vacation."

"I've heard a great deal of your exploits against Orochimaru and the Akatsuki Cinderface-kun. I have no doubt that I'm good care." Michiru praised the swordsman, before he noticed the petite kunoichi nearby. Having a thing for pretty faces, Michiru decided to grab her hands "Well aren't you just the most pretty young lady. Far too pretty to be a ninja."

"Um...what?" Tenten grimaced, clearly finding the situation awkward.

Being quite the pervert as well, Itachi decided to make his own move on Tenten "I see that the Prince has quite the eye for lovely ladies. Indeed, Miss Virgo is a delicate flower who's beauty knows no bounds. Her pearly brown eyes, her silk like hair, her glistening skin, and goddess like curves. It is absolutely-"

"SHUT THE HELL UP SKIRT CHASER!" Tenten grabbed onto Itachi's ear and began shaking him around by it in annoyance with his lecherous raving. While Naruto laughed at the sight of the Uchiha heir being shaken around, Chouji continued to suffer in the sweltering heat. However he was quickly brought to his senses when a toy arrow hit him dead in the center of his hitai-te, only for the delirium caused by the heat to cause him to panic.

"WE'RE UNDER ATTACK!"

"Really fatso, that was pathetic! If that arrow was real you'd be dead." The source of the arrow revealed itself to be a young boy wearing white clothes and a large pair of clothes "Are you sure about these people Otousan? They don't even look like real ninja; especially not the blonde loser in the pink jacket."

Upon being insulted by the boy, Naruto responded by clicking his sword from its sheath "What did you say to me, you little punk?"

"Please forgive my Hikaru, Cinderface-kun. I'm afraid he's going through that childhood trend of mischief." Michiru tried to his excuse his son from any wrong doing while leading the shinobi back to the parade of caravans "Now we must make haste back to Crescent Moon, I'd hate to keep Papa and Shabadaba-kun waiting any longer before the Reverie."

While he and his father waltzed back into the caravans without a care in the world, Hikaru briefly sneered at Naruto "Filthy pirate."

Having noticed this, Naruto delivered his own glare to the young prince "I have a feeling I'm really going to hate this gaki."

* * *

"It's a big honor to meet you Cinderface-kun. You're like a superhero for the entire South Blue." Michiru continued to fanboy over the swordsman, who was currently carrying the overheated Chouji on his back "You fought the World Government, Otogakure, the Akatsuki, and hundreds of pirates and mountain bandits! You and the Pirate Hunter even took out the Black Eel Pirates of the West Blue. Imagine my surprise when I figured out you were hired to escort me and my son home from vacation."

"Gee thanks. By the way could you get my friend some water, he's not really good in the heat." Naruto pointed out Chouji's suffering, to which he was quickly given a bottle.

After practically inhaling the liquid, Chouji got a bit more color in his face and listened in on the conversation between Michiru and Naruto "I can't wait for you to see the island Cinderface-kun. It's a tropical paradise with the most beautiful sandy beaches and grand casinos."

"What about the food? Is the food on Crescent Moon good?" Chouji asked while Itachi jumped into the conversation.

"And what about the girls?"

"Our country has the largest all you can eat food buffets from a wide variety of different cultures, and the most gorgeous women in the South Blue. Well, aside from your island of course Itachi-kun." Michiru explained, which got both Chouji and Itachi visibly excited.

"YEAH ALL YOU CAN EAT!"

"BEAUTIFUL WOMEN!"

"ROAD TRIP!"

"ROAD TRIP!"

"ROAD TRIP!"

"ROAD TRIP!"

"Why did Neji bail on me." Naruto groaned at their cheers before he saw something emerging over the cliffs of the valley. Specifically a group of mountain bandits that were climbing down with intent to rob them blind "We've got company."

"I'll take care of it Naruto-san." Itachi said as he unsheathed his sword and charged towards the mountain bandits who didn't really seemed that threatened by the former Akatsuki chairman.

"Kick his ass boys! It's just one man!"

The man who appeared to be the leader of the group of thieves charged at Naruto with a spear, only for Itachi to dodge it with ease and grab onto the hilt of the spear. Itachi then proceeded to use his momentum to toss him off the side of the cliff before he found himself face to face with the rest of the group. However they proved to be no match for the Uchiha, who used his Sharingan to predict their movements and dispatch them with his own style of taijutsu.

All the while Michiru and Hikaru merely relaxed inside the safety of the caravan "Hikaru-kun, you really should watch the fight. Itachi-kun is really good at his job."

"Who cares, he's just some loser shinobi anyways. They're easily replaceable."

Ignoring the boy's insults with a growl, Chouji continued his conversation with the elder prince "So Oujisama, if you're a prince than that means you're going to take over the title as King of Crescent Moon right?"

"Of course, I plan on ruling the kingdom once my father decides to retire. But he's in really good health, so I don't see him retiring for quite a while. I still have plenty of time to enjoy the days of my youth." Michiru yawned as he lazed about in the caravan "Unfortunately he doesn't see it that way. He even made me go on this journey right before Reverie to broaden my horizons. So who's the king of your village?"

"We don't really have a king actually, we have a Hokage. But even then the seat is vacant since Jiisama died fighting Cell." Naruto explained to the fat prince, who seemed rather shocked by this revelation.

"You don't have a king? How do you survive?"

"That's a real mystery Oujisan." Naruto said with sarcasm dripping from his voice.

"So is the title of Hokage passed down from father to son or something?"

"Not quite Oujisama; you see there are 13 Court Guard Squads that protect our village, and each one has a captain that makes up the Shinobi council. From one of these 13 shinobi, the Hokage is chosen whenever the need for a new one arises. With any luck we'll have a new one by the time we get back." Tenten put her input into the conversation, while Itachi came back down the cliffs after easily beating the mountain bandits.

"That's dumb." Hikaru rolled his eyes at the shinobi, before continuing to mash the buttons on his handheld console.

The only thing this achieved was making Naruto even more annoyed with him than he already was _'I'm really starting to hate this gaki.'_

 ** _'Just put up with it for now gaki. He may be a little bitch, but he's still a client of this job. And we can easily draw on his face while he's sleeping.'_**

 _'Ah touché Kurama.'_

* * *

The journey across the dessert to the coast of Shinobi Island had taken the escort about a day and a half of travel, with them living in absolute luxury. Or at least Michiru and Hikaru did, while the team of bodyguards got the short end of the stick. Later that afternoon they came across a town that was currently hosting a traveling animal circus, which Michiru just had to go see. The circus was indeed quite a fun experience, with the animals and human performers alike putting on a great show for the audience.

After an entire show of grand experiences for the audience to enjoy, the ringmaster was moving onto the main attraction and grand finale "Now for the moment you've all been waiting for: Chamū the sabertooth tiger, and his primate partner Kiki!" The spotlight focused on the aforementioned sabertooth tiger who released a mighty roar and strutted down to the ringmaster, while a monkey wearing a red hat came down as well.

"That little monkey is so cute!" Tenten gushed over the tiny mammal, while Naruto focused on a different aspect of the show.

"I like the tiger. I can respect it as a fellow swordsman."

With the audience continuing to watch in awe, Chamū and Kiki started their performance by continuously hitting the ball back and forth to each other. This cycle ended when Chamū made his way back onto the podiums and leapt through several rings of fire. After landing safely on the other side, the tiger released another roar before Kiki landed on his head munching an apple. He then tossed the apple into the air, where it was shot into a target by a nearby archer.

After the monkey was given another apple, Chamū stood up on his hind legs and began swaying side to side "Now things become much more dangerous for our primate friend. If he's off by even a centimeter Kiki will be in serious trouble. Can Chamū pull it off?" The stadium hushed to a halt while the archer prepared to make his shot, only for Hikaru to hit it with one of his toy arrows out of nowhere.

"Easy shot."

"Wow, you have a great eye young lad. But let's see you handle this shot!" The ringmaster signaled Chamū to run around the ring, with Kiki still holding up the apple "If you can hit the apple under these conditions, you win a prize!"

"You think he can actually make it?" Chouji wondered aloud through his bites of popcorn.

"I suppose it's a possibility." Itachi glared at the apple being spun around on the monkey's finger.

To the surprise of just about everyone watching, Hikaru actually managed to make the shot causing the stadium to explode with applause "Way to go son! You definitely deserve some sort of prize after a feat like that. Now what to give you..."

"I'll take the tiger." Hikaru almost immediately pointed towards the tiger prowling around the ring, to the shock of the ringmaster.

"Say what?...Um sonny, I'm afraid that while he's tame, Chamū can still be pretty dangerous when he's in an uncomfortable and unfamiliar environment." The ringmaster tried to explain this to Hikaru, only for Michiru to interject with his own opinion on the subject.

"It's no problem sir, in fact I kind of like the idea of having my own circus. We'll just take the whole thing off your hands, with the right amount of money of course."

The ringmaster stammered for a moment, before his eyes turned into Beri signs and he collapsed to the ground. All the while, the four man team of shinobi watched in annoyance "I'm beginning to see why this man has such a large parade of caravans." Itachi groaned with exasperation clear in his flat voice.

* * *

In the waters of the South Blue between Shinobi Island and Crescent Moon Island floated a large raft-like ship with three black sails with the lowest one having three evil looking skulls. This ship was one of 10 belonging to the notorious Blackbeard Pirates who ruled over a large portion of the New World. At the moment, the captain of the fifth ship and navigator of the original crew, Lafitte was on a business trip in the South Blue with the Santatsu Foundation and was meeting with one of their members.

"It's quite rude to be this late. Where in the world could that man possibly be this late in the day?" Lafitte wondered aloud as he stood on the deck of his ship along with several members of his crew, before he saw the strange site of what appeared to a be a human-shaped storm cloud descending onto the ship "It's about time Soramaru-san. Do you have the transponder snail from the new king of Crescent Moon?"

"Of course Lafitte-san. Just remember that your captain also has to fulfill his end of the bargain before he can get what the Foundation has promised him." Soramaru said as he materialized into a full human and landed, before taking out a baby den den mushi from his sleeve and handing it to Lafitte.

Within moments the den den mushi began to ring, causing Lafitte to answer the device and a high and gravelly voice to speak through the snail. This voice belonged to Shabadaba, the minister of Crescent Moon who was noticeably unhappy "What shit are you Santatsu dunces trying to push on me? Kakeru got away because your men couldn't get the job done properly!"

"Stop spewing crap old man." Kongo said from nearby Shabadaba, which went through the den den mushi as well.

"I turned the bastard's innards to stone, so even if he got away for now he should still be dead soon enough." Ishidate joined the conversation.

"No matter, so tell me are the two royal brats coming home from their little vacation soon?" Shabadaba shrugged off his hired help's objections to his criticism to ask Soramaru of Michiru and Hikaru's status.

After clearing his throat out for a moment, Soramaru answered in his usual serene tone of voice "They should be setting sail to Crescent Moon by sunset Oo-sama. I'll send a storm out then with the help Lafitte-san, and we'll capture them then for execution."

"You make it sound too easy Soramaru-san; don't forget that the previous king has hired shinobi from Konoha to protect his intended successors, and one of just so happens to be the Cinde-" Laffite tried to explain to the Nitatsu, only to get interrupted.

"What are you thinking? Don't mention that man while Ishidate-san is on the phone!" Soramaru tried to shut up the former navigator before Ishidate could hear, but it was far too late for that and the former pirate captain was able to figure out what they meant.

"So that Cinderface-gaki is guarding that fat idiot of a prince?" Ishidate gave out a low growl from the other side of the den den mushi before he began to chuckle "Perfect, this is the entire reason I joined this stupid organization in the first place. I'm going to give that wannabe bounty hunter his just desserts for what he did to me 7 years ago!"

* * *

 **(A/N): Good** **news: More Ninja of Santoryu! Bad news: It's just a side story, and the main one is still on hiatus. More bad news: It likely won't be off hiatus until sometime next January of February. Hell, the entire reason I'm writing this story is to tide over fans of the main story while I'm stuck dealing with my first semester of college, which keep in mind hasn't been easy. But on the bright side, this story should be a lot shorter, with only about 3-4 chapters and my other stories, Malevolence and Part of a Family (especially the latter) will take precedence after that. That is assuming the second half of the term doesn't eat me alive. Wish me luck that won't happen and please be patient for more chapters. And for new readers, I have to ask that you read the main one first, so this one will make a lick of sense. And don't worry, it gets a lot better as it goes on.**

 **See you next time!**

 **. . .**


	2. A Traitorous Return

**Disclaimer:** **I don't own Naruto or One Piece. If I did, then I'd probably be out of college by now.**

 **Ikō: What's with those bags under your eyes Skillet? Did you get a Thanksgiving hangover or something.**

 **Skillet: I wish! This shit right here is from college! I don't have time to do anything I enjoy anymore!**

 **L: I'm guessing that includes writing?**

 **Skillet: Very much so.**

 **Ikō: Well joy bunnies. Arc 3 is going to start in a month and the updates will be even more sporadic than they normally are?**

 **Skillet: We just have to keep moving forward I'm afraid. The story's only halfway over and I've got to get to the end one way or another!**

 **Side Story: Shichibukai of the Crescent Moon Kingdom**

 **Chapter 2: A Traitorous Return**

* * *

Upon buying the entire circus, Michiru had his servants begin unloading its contents from the ground and loading it into their caravans. Currently he was negotiating with the former ringmaster of the circus the pricing for the sell and the conditions of the staff and animals, all while the shinobi that had been hired to bodyguard for him looked on in shock "Is this guy seriously buying an entire circus? That's pretty amazing."

"He is a rich idiot after all, we can't really be too surprised." Naruto said in a clearly exasperated tone regarding the prince's behavior, only to notice that Hikaru was moving towards the Chamū with an apple in his hand. The boy attempted to offer it to the sabertooth tiger, only for it to begin growling and bow up in apparent irritation, before roaring and attempting to pounce on Hikaru.

Luckily for the young prince, Naruto managed to get him out of the way. After a few moments of panting, Naruto managed to say "I don't think the sabertooth tigers enjoy apples very much gaki. You really should give him some space."

After the fear had worn off, Hikaru proceeded to glare at Naruto and tear away from his grip "Please, like I need any advice from a stupid pirate!"

"Gee, thanks for the gratitude!" Naruto said in sarcasm before another man who appeared to be an attendant of Michiru's.

"Excuse me Sir Naruto, do you know where I could find Prince Michiru?"

Ignoring the fact that the attendant referred to him by the title of sir, something which greatly annoyed him, Naruto asked the nervous looking man "What is it? Something wrong with the port or something?"

"Yes, Sir Naruto, it appears that a sudden storm has prevented the royal yacht from being able to leave Crescent Moon. I've called for another boat, but it won't arrive for a few more hours!"

Before Naruto could answer, Michiru, who had been listening in on the assistant's words, told him something regarding their departure "That's fine, there's actually something more I've wanted to take care of while we're in this town anyway! Cinderface-kun, do you and your subordinates mind taking me and Hikaru to the abode of my ex-wife?"

"Wait a minute, since when am I his subordinate!" Itachi objected to the prince's terminology, before realizing exactly what he had said "You have an ex? Is she hot!"

Naruto proceeded to respond to Itachi's normal perverted antics by harshly pulling down on his ear, causing him to cry in pain and discomfort "Down Ero-Senpai! We don't need you to put the moves on our client's ex!" After he had finished punishing the lecherous Uchiha, Naruto turned his attention to the prince "We've got to wait a few hours for our ride to get here, so it's not like we've got anything else to do I guess."

* * *

Upon being given permission by his head bodyguard, Michiru directed down a path near the ports of the island continent and they arrived shortly after at a small yellow farmhouse by the coast where a woman with long black hair and a sleeveless green dress was working in the fields. This woman was of particular interest to Michiru, who stared at her intently "There she is guys, the love of my life."

"Didn't she dump you though?" Tenten pointed out, causing the prince to go into a small depression.

This quickly faded away as the carriage came to a halt, causing Michiru to anxiously gather up the massive amount of flowers he'd purchased and stumble out of the carriage like a clumsy ox "Amayo-chan my dear, it's been far to long since the last time I've seen you!" The older prince said in excitement as Amayo finally noticed him, only for her to immediately move right past him and towards Hikaru, surprising him.

"Hikaru, my baby boy! I can't believe how big you've gotten!" Amayo said as he tightly embraced her son, before being distracted by Michuru, who was trying to get her attention with the flowers. This failed however, as she completely failed to recognize him "Who are you and what the hell are you doing with my son?"

"Amayo-chan it's me! Michiru!"

"NO WAY! WHAT HAVE YOU BEEN EATING SINCE WE DIVORCED?!" Amayo asked in shock, having recognized her ex-husband upon closer examination of his face.

"So the prince used to be more thin? There's a surprise." Itachi said as he approached Amayo and pulled a rose from out of nowhere "Hello lovely lady, I'm Itachi Uchiha. Would you consider me as a potential second husb-"

"I don't think so Skirt Chaser!" Tenten irritably said as she pulled him away from Amayo by the ear.

"I guess I have put on a few pounds since then, but eating has been helping me smother the loneliness I've felt since you left me!" Michiru said in a pitiful tone. In response to this, Amayo only sighed in frustration. The conversation between Michiru and Amayo carried on into the latter's farmhouse, which mostly consisted of Michiru begging Amayo to take him back and her perpetual refusal "But me and Hikaru are so lonely without you at home!"

"I've told you a million times I want nothing to do with you anymore! And if it weren't for that prenuptial agreement I signed, I'd be keeping Hikaru with me! The last thing I want is for him to come into adulthood looking and acting like some sort of Word Noble!"

"I just don't understand why you hate me so much Amayo-chan; haven't I given you everything you ever wanted?"

"You never got me what I really wanted from you! The most important thing!"

"...A new mansion?"

"You're not hearing me!"

Meanwhile, Tenten and Naruto stood outside the door frame as acting bodyguards while Chouji and Itachi stayed outside with Hikaru. As a result of the seemingly endless bickering between the two exes, the weapons mistress and the swordsman were getting more and more exasperated "How long have these two been going on like this?" After asking this, she realized that Naruto had fallen asleep standing up at the doorway "Long enough for you I guess."

"I'm not really sure if I have a chance with her Itachi. I mean she's the prettiest girl I've ever seen and I'm...well, way far behind everyone else." Chouji conversed with the former Akatsuki chairman as they sat on the fence with Hikaru.

"You give yourself too little credit Chouji-san. After all, you did manage to beat Heartless, and beating a chairman would be no small accomplishment for our enemies." Itachi encouraged him before mentioning off to the side "We can agree that Miss Yamanaka is insanely gorgeous though. But I guess I can't really hit on her now that I know you have feelings."

"It never stopped you with Hinata did it?" Chouji said, before they saw a figure running towards them from down the road. This figure was a muscular man wearing a red, shaggy wig and blue and white robes with a lightning like stitch pattern which were very familiar to Itachi. To make matters worse, he had an orange glowing hand with a menacing eye protruding from the back. Judging from the pace of his sprinting, he was filled fury and bloodlust towards the group.

"CINDERFACE! COME OUT SO I CAN KILL YOU BRAT!"

Upon hearing the loud screaming of his nickname from further down the road, Naruto woke with a jolt and saw that Tenten had armed herself before doing the same with his own swords. It was at this point that Chouji and Itachi burst into the house, with the latter carrying Hikaru in "Put me down Skirt Chaser!"

"Don't call me that!" Itachi yelled in frustration at the young prince using his embarrassing nickname before he turned to his commander "#9, we might want to get out of here as quickly as possible."

"Not so fast!" Ishidate said as he walked through the open back door "I may have been hired to capture the princes, but I really only care about you! I'm going to make you pay for what you and the Pirate Hunter did to me!" The former pirate captain said as he picked up the table and threw it.

 **"Ittoryu: Sanjuroku Pound Ho"**

Naruto sliced the coffee table in half, before he grabbed Michiru by the arm and quickly dragged him out of the house before Ishidate could attack again "Time to head back to the ports Oujisan!"

"Who's that guy?"

"Beats me! Lots have people wanna kill me so I can really differentiate that well!" Naruto explained as he lead the prince back to the caravan before giving an order to his subordinates "Get the clients back to the ports. I'll handle this bastard!"

Naruto to confront Ishidate, getting a better look at his face and recognizing him now "So, Stone Grip Ishidate, former captain of the Black Eel Pirates? You had a 15,000,000 beri bounty on your head before I kicked your ass. So tell me, what's a small guy like you working for a big pain in the ass like the Santatsu Foundation?"

"If you must now, me and my subordinates were hired to kidnap the prince of Crescent Moon and his son to ransom to the former king to come out of hiding. Getting the opportunity to kill you is an added bonus." Ishidate said before using his infamous strength to pick up a slab of the road and toss it in the air before punching it, causing debris which was strangely glowing purple to shoot at Naruto in the form of shards.

 **"Gorgon Rain"**

 **"Tora Gari"**

Naruto easily deflected the shards of rock with his katana, before countering with a charge that was blocked by Ishidate's strange hand. The former pirate captain then pushed Naruto back and made an attempt to claw at him with it, managing to land a scratch which had the bizarre affect of turning to stone on Naruto's cheek "Neat little trick you got there? Get it from some sort of cursed gauntlet or something?"

"Not quite. You see I ate the Grip-Grip Fruit since we last fought each other in the West Blue. Whatever I touch turns to rock in my clutch! I swear I'm too much!" Ishidate proclaimed as swung his now cursed hand at the blonde swordsman "The effects wear off within an hour, but by then I'll have already shattered you to pieces!"

 **"Rengoku Oni Giri"**

Naruto took the opening in Ishidate's defense and unleashed a devastating attack which sent the ex-pirate flying in the opposite direction, seemingly defeated "That was way too easy. Listen, I've got a job to do, so I don't have time to waste on little frogs that shouldn't bother stepping into this big pond." Naruto mocked his downed opponent before heading after the caravan that wasn't too far away. However, Ishidate was still barely moving from Naruto's blow, and glared at the back of his head as he walked away.

 _'Shitty gaki!'_

* * *

The rest of the trip to the ports of Shinobi Island had been rather easy; just as Ishidate had claimed the stone scratch on Naruto had disappeared within the hour, but they were now plenty more suspicious and on guard now that they the Santatsu were after them during this mission, especially Itachi. After a quick sunset celebration with the circus animals, they departed from the ports and made their way across the South Blue to the island of Crescent Moon.

However, Hikaru continued to be in a foul mood due to his experience with Chāmu being less than stellar due to the tiger having a distrust humans. This was not helped by him being kept in a cage throughout the entire journey. But as the witching hour descended over the seas in which they traveled, a major problem came into view of the crow's nest. A large raft shaped ship that flew the flag of the infamous Blackbeard Pirates.

"PIRATES! PIRATES ON THE STARBOARD BOW!" The watchmen said as it suddenly began to pour down rain "WHAT THE FUCK! IT WAS JUST CLEAR AND STARRY OUT HERE!"

"Oh man, why did you have to pick such a crazy mission Naruto?" Chouji said as he was roused from his sleep along with the other Konoha shinobi, before they trudged into the hallway to see that a terrified Michiru was having a word with the captain with Hikaru nearby.

"They're demanding entry onto the ship, and they're being led by Captain Lafitte! Not to mention the storm is flooding the deck! At this rate, we'll lose our cargo and the animals!"

"Well, do something! I don't intend to lose anything out at sea!" Michiru complained to the captain.

"We'll do everything we can!" Tenten notified them as they all made their way to the flooding deck with the exception of Hikaru who was leaning against the wall. However, a remark of the boy made Naruto stop dead in his tracks when he heard it.

"Who cares, they're boring me anyways. Just let em' drown."

"What did you just say gaki?" Naruto growled and gave Hikaru a cold glad before grabbing him by the collar of his shirt "People like you are a waste of space. Those animals may just be playthings to you royal dumbasses, but they can live, and breathe, and feel pain just like the rest of us! The fact that you'd let them die like trash just because you're bored of them is sickening!" Naruto curled his hand into a fist and prepared to strike him over the head, before stopping "Who am I kidding. You're not even worth hitting! Just stay out of our way!"

With that Naruto followed his team onto the deck to try taking care of the threats, leaving Hikaru sniveling against the wall. After a few moments of pondering the swordsman's words, Hikaru got up and said with determination in his voice "I'm not a waste of space! I'll prove it!" Hikaru walked to outside where the crew and shinobi were hard at work trying to bring the cargo and circus animals to a safer location on the ship, and confronting the group of pirates who'd made their way onto the ship led by Lafitte.

"Tell me Cinderface, how has Straw Hat been doing since Dressrosa?" Lafitte said as he tap danced his way over to Naruto with intent to fight. Naruto armed himself with his swords, until realizing that Hikaru was on the flooded deck and making his way towards the trapped Chāmu.

This turned bad went the weight of the storm water resulted in the ship's mass veering to the left, sending Chāmu, Kikki, and Hikaru hurtling towards the side of the ship. With his opponent temporarily distracted, Lafitte attempted to attack only for Itachi to block him off "I'll take the girly man! You go help the gaki #9!" Having grabbed onto the tusk of a mammoth that was also on the ship, Hikaru avoided going to the side along with the trapped tiger and monkey.

However, this didn't stop him from heading in after them, horrifying his father and the ringmaster "No lad! Just let us handle it!"

"I'm not going to let you die!" Hikaru claimed as he used the water to slip over to the cage and unlock it with the key that was already inserted. While this freed both animals, the ship suddenly shifted from the waves again, leaving Hikaru and Kikki the monkey hanging over the side. They could only hang on for a short minute before he saw a young man with long and wavy white hair tied back into a ponytail and icy blue eyes wearing a high collared robes, standing on the air while seemingly not even noticing the storm raging around him. He gave the prince a soft smile before they were suddenly pulled under by the waves.

"Gaki!"

 **"Kage Bushin no Jutsu"**

Despite knowing the danger, Naruto and Chāmu both leapt in after Hikaru, with the former making a large chain of Kage Bushin meant to pull him back onto the deck. Upon arriving on the deck, Hikaru coughed up seawater before Naruto spoke to him "That was probably one of the dumbest things I've ever seen gaki! It was definitely one of the bravest though." Naruto said with a grin, surprising Hikaru as Naruto seemed to have hated him.

"Um, Naruto, this is a touching scene and all, but we've got bigger problems!" Chouji informed as the man Hikaru had seen made his way onto the deck. This man was Soramaru Kodama, a Nitatsu belonging to the Santatsu Foundation.

"Color me impressed Roronoa-san, you went to such great lengths to save this child. But that doesn't change the fact that the Santatsu Foundation has been hired to take care of him and his father." Soramaru said serenely despite his intentions.

"I recognize you. You're one of Danzō-teme's new bodyguards!"

"He's Soramaru Kodama, a Nitatsu and one of the Santatsu Foundation's strongest members. He's far greater in power than anyone else we've ever faced before!" Itachi explained to Naruto, who didn't seem to care that much "I presume this means that the Blackbeard Pirates and the Santatsu Foundation have forged an alliance with each other."

"That doesn't really matter to me. I'm going to kick his ass either way!" Naruto prepared to pull his swords from their sheath, before he heard the crackling of electricity from above him and Hikaru.

"I understand you're the Jinchuriki of the Kyuubi no Kitsune, meaning your element is metal. But no matter what type of metal it may be, it will always conduct electricity."

 **"Heavenly Wrath"**

Knowing full well what was about to happen, Naruto tossed Hikaru out of the way with only a few seconds before he was struck down by several 100 volts in a pillar of lightning that likely would have killed an average human instantly. As Naruto was most certainly not an average human, he screamed in agony as the every cell in his body was electrocuted, which was made even more painful by the fact that he was currently drenched in rainwater. Within moments of the lightning's end, Naruto collapsed in defeat.

"NARUTO!"

"I guess you weren't as strong as the rumors might say Roronoa-san. But what can be expected from a dead last. Now let's get back to what I was hired to do." Soramaru said as he approached Hikaru, only for his Kenbunshoku Haki to sense Itachi coming in from behind.

 **"Hail Blade: Billionfold"**

Avoiding Itachi's Busoshoku Haki covered blade, Soramaru countered without batting an eyelash by freezing all the raindrops around them into tiny but sharp blades of ice. This resulted in several pints of blood spewing from Itachi's bodies, easily defeating him as well "No way! How strong is this guy!" Chouji said in shock as two of their strongest their squad's strongest shinobi were taken down in a matter of moments before his eyes. He turned to Tenten to see if she had any plan for what to do next, only to realize the kunoichi had disappeared.

Despite his knees shaking from fear, Hikaru stood up on the deck and picked up a pocketknife that had been left lying on the deck and held it up to his neck "You want me and Otousan alive right? Well, if you don't get off this boat right now, I'll slit my own throat and you'll fail whoever hired you!" Hikaru screamed before Soramaru suddenly materialized from nothing and grabbed him by the throat and knocked the knife from his hand before he could make good on his threats.

"Quite the brave child aren't you? But you should know that I always follow my orders to the-" Soramaru said to boy before he suddenly let out a high pitched squeal of agony. This was because Hikaru's legs were still rather low, and before Soramaru could activate his Logia abilities, Hikaru had used them to kick him in the groin, causing every man watching the clench in discomfort at the sight of it "Why you little brat!"

 **"Exploding Dragon Strike"**

Before this could escalate any further, a large explosion in the shape of a dragon suddenly occurred on the deck of the Blackbeard Pirate's ship, with Tenten gracefully flying out before landing on Crescent Moon's boat, and giving the enemy a confident smile. In response, the invading pirates began to panic while the crew praised Tenten's actions "Nice job Tenten!"

"It's no matter! We'll just leave that ship to sink and hijack this one!" Soramaru claimed, only to be scolded by Lafitte.

"What are you thinking? There's no way we'll way be able to fit all of our men on this tiny thing! I'm surprised we were even able to fit on this amount! Blackbeard Pirates, retreat!"

Upon hearing this new order, Soramaru dropped the boy and gave him a deathly still glare "Know this boy, I always pay back my debts. Don't think I'll let this slide!" That was the last thing Hikaru heard before he passed out from exhaustion.

* * *

Once Soramaru had left with Lafitte's damaged ship, his weather radius had left with it causing both the skies and seawater to calm themselves down mere minutes after their departure. Thankfully there had been no major casualties during the attempted shanghai, but Naruto and Itachi were both taken to the infirmary immediately for the injuries that Soramaru had given them. Due to both men having superhuman levels of endurance and Michiru having hired top-notch medical professionals to accompany them on their journey in the case of an emergency, they managed to survive the brutal attacks and made recoveries by morning.

"I look like I was cooked in a pizza oven. It's a good thing that none of those raindrops pierced too deep." Itachi said as he inspected the hundreds of shallow scratches and scabs that covered his body after Soramaru's failed attempt at killing him.

"You're telling me." Naruto said as he tried to stretch out the stiffness in his body from the comfort of his medical bed "I've been so sore, I didn't sleep for nearly as long I wanted to."

"You slept for 10 straight hours #9-san."

"What's your point?"

The conversation came to a sudden halt when the familiar face of Hikaru came in to the room, before suddenly kneeling his head apologetically to Naruto "Cinderface-senpai, I'm sorry. I've been acting like a stupid brat to you and your friends this entire trip. Please forgive me."

While this sudden change in behavior surprised Naruto and Itachi, Kurama merely seemed amused from his position in Naruto's body _**"Look's like the royal brat's finally coming around, eh Naruto?"**_

"Please, I want you to take me on as your apprentice!" Hikaru said as he got to his knees.

"I don't know. Seems to me like you've already got a pretty fitting weapon with that bow of yours gaki. You may be a brat, but you've got good aim. If you used real arrows instead of those toy ones, I bet you'd be a real terror towards the enemy." Naruto told the young prince.

"But how is that going to make me as cool as you? You're even cool when your even getting your ass kicked, or wearing that stupid pink jacket." Hikaru claimed, to which Naruto grumbled a bit before giving Itachi another intense glare.

"I don't fight to look cool gaki. I fight because I want to get stronger and be the greatest swordsman on the face of the world. That's my dream, and I'd die a happy man if I could accomplish it." Naruto said while looking at his katana which were currently placed off to the side on a nearby table "Tell me, what's your dream?"

"My dream...I know that I'll become the king of Crescent Moon one day, and I've learned that there will be a lot of bad guys that will keep going after me for that title. So my new dream is to become a strong king for my people that no one will mess with." Hikaru claimed, putting a smile on Naruto's face.

"Well, I guess that means you know more about ruling than your old man gaki."

Speaking of Michiru, the fat prince came in through the door with a smile on his face "Cinderface-kun, Itachi-kun, are you boys doing any better this morning?"

"We're still alive Oujisama, and that's really what matters." Itachi said while scratching his scan covered face, only for Chāmu and Kikki to come in slinking past Michiru into the room. This put the men on guard, until he seemed oddly affectionate with Hikaru. Remembering what had happened between them last night, they quickly connected the dots "I guess that animals understand how trust works just as well as humans do."

* * *

Within the hour, the boat had made landfall at the port of Crescent Moon's capital. After having parted ways with the circus folk, the royal caravan made their way through the normally lively streets of the city which were now as desolate as a ghost town, much to Itachi's disappointment "I don't see a single woman out here. Don't tell me I came on this mission for nothing!"

"Wait a minute, you only came on this mission to pick up chicks?!" Tenten angrily questioned the perverted Uchiha, who now tried to avoid eye contact.

"Seems like you're guilty of false advertising eh Oujisan." Naruto said to the prince has he walked alongside the caravan.

"I don't know what's going on, these streets are normally bustling with people and tourists! Where did everybody go?" Michiru nervously wondered, feeling an air of suspicion as they made their way through the empty streets.

Looking around the streets for any suspicious activity, Tenten discreetly said to her fellow shinobi while arming herself with a kunai "Remember to keep your guard up guys. We still don't know who hired the Santatsu or when they'll show up again. I don't think we could survive another attack from that weather freak." The other members of the team gave her a small nod, also being paranoid of another enemy attack.

Soon, they had made their way through the palace gates before stopping at courtyard which was still deathly silent. Before they could question this, a short man with a long mustache and a mullet wearing the robes of a minister came from the balcony, along with another balding more effeminate looking man "Welcome home Michiru-sama. You and Hikaru-sama certainly look to be in good health; I hope you've enjoyed your long journey."

"Thank you Shabadaba-kun. Is something wrong with the commoners? We didn't see a single person on our trip to the palace." Michiru asked of his family friend, who only grew silent and glared down at him like a fox does a hen "...Shabadaba-kun? Where is Otousan?"

"Your father? Why, I'm afraid I had him killed! Now I am the rightful king of Crescent Moon!" Shabadaba announced, while men in the familiar white and blue robes of the Santatsu Foundation came out of the palace and surrounded the group "And now that I rule, there's no need for your lineage to continue. Kill them all men!" The group of Shotatsu charged them with their own weapons and immediately set their sights on Michiru and Hikaru, only to be deflected by three swords.

 **"Tatsu Maki"**

After blowing the enemy away with his own attack, Naruto said to the prince "I think we know who hired the Santatsu now! Get in the carriage and we'll take care of things!"

 **"Early Sacrifice"**

 **"Human Boulder"**

To say that the Shotatsu were outmatched would be an understatement, as Itachi was more than capable of taking out several of them at once with the usage of his Haki and Sharingan, while Chouji simply used his clan techniques to crush the enemy under his girth or blow them away using enlarged limbs. Tenten flipped into the air and sent down an exploding kunai onto the palace ground, killing several Shotatsu and giving the coachman time to drive off. This didn't last long though as the men easily able to catch up and knock the coachman from his post, before attempting to break in to the carriage and kill its passengers.

 **"Oni Giri"**

Right as the broke through the windows, Naruto cut them down and began to defend the carriage in close quarters before noticing that reinforcements were coming in the form of soldiers "Please tell me they're on our side!" The reinforcements quickly made their allegiance know when a black haired man pulled out a saber and began fighting off the army of Shotatsu that were attacking the front of the carriage.

"Korega!" Shabadaba recognized the soldier "Kill that traitor with the rest of them men! He's a threat to my benevolent rule!"

"Kakeru's rule was a benevolent one! You're the real traitor Shabadaba!" Korega yelled at the treacherous minister before being forced back to back with Naruto as they defended the carriage "You guys are from Shinobi Island right?"

"Yep, we were hired to protect these two idiots. Never thought it would be from a guy with a wolverine mullet." Naruto said as he struck down more Shotatsu, before asking something else "And his name seriously Shabadaba? His parents must have hated him or something!"

"Not the time Naruto!" Tenten said while taking out two sealing scrolls, and unleashing its contents onto the enemy.

 **"Rising Twins Dragons"**

"Man, they weren't kidding about Shinobi Island having the most beautiful women in the South Blue." Korega said as he watched Tenten fight with ease "Listen Blondie, I'll drive the carriage while you guard our escape. We'll take you to see the king then!"

Naruto gave the soldier a nod, before he ran up to the driver's seat of the carriage and put the horses at a top sprint, quickly getting them out of the palace grounds with the Konoha shinobi following soon after them. However, to ensure they couldn't be followed, Chouji made a large stone wall in front of the gate to block the path and cover their escape.

 **"Earth Release: Practice Brick Jutsu"**

"NO! Damnit, these Santatsu idiots are good for nothing. And to think they're charging me so much I can't even afford to hire that Soramaru fellow anymore!" Shabadaba growled as his enemy made their escape, before he was joined three figures each with similar spiky wigs.

"You could have just sent us in you know. We may be Shotatsu, but we're twice as strong as any one else in the organization." Ishidate said to the minister.

"Not a good idea Captain Ishidate. You've already gotten your ass kicked by the Cinderface twice already, don't you think that's enough." Karenbana said with a high pitched laugh as she mocked her former captain for his defeats against Naruto.

"Don't be ridiculous Karenbana, I won't stop trying to get my revenge until one of us is dead!"

* * *

The renegade carriage escaped to the mountain ranges of Crescent Moon where the soldiers who remained loyal to Kakeru's reign made their hideout. Aside from a few minor bumps and scratches, none of them were seriously injured during the previous battle. Upon their arrival, Korega took the small group into a cave where an elderly man who appeared to be at death's door lie on the bedrock. Recognizing the man immediately, Michiru and Hikaru ran to him with concern in their voice.

"Otousan!"

"Jiisan!"

"I'm guessing that old man is the king?" Naruto wondered aloud while he slowly walked into the cave.

"What happened to him?" Tenten asked, noticing that Kakeru had one foot in the grave by this point.

Korega quickly answered the kunoichi's question "He and Prime Minister Shabadaba along with the rest of his advisors have been having arguments about how the policies of the country should be run as of late. Ousama had hoped to one day help them see what he saw in the country, but they were secretly plotting to overthrow him. We learned of their plans ahead of time, so we decided to send Oujisama and his son away on vacation before they could gain enough manpower. We thought that we could settle the matter once you were out of harms way, but they hired mercenaries from the Santatsu Foundation and made a preemptive strike. And by then, it was too late. We couldn't protect Ousama."

"Wait, that's why you sent us away?" Michiru realized as he looked upon his fading father "To protect us?"

"Naruto, don't you think we should check his wounds? Kurama's youkai might be able to heal them!" Chouji suggested to the swordsman, who took the advice and approached Kakeru while unhitching Kurama from his side and allowing him to turn back into his human form. However, when he pulled back the sheet dressing the old man's injuries, they saw that a large portion of his body had been turned to stone.

Recognizing the state of his wounds, Naruto asked Korega "Did the man responsible for this have a Devil Fruit power that can turn anything he touches to stone? On our way here, we were attacked by a man who had that power. He claimed he was hired to kill Oujisan and the gaki."

"That's correct. If my intel is correct, he was once a pirate of the West Blue named Stone Grip Ishidate. Can you do anything Pianist?"

"It's worth a shot. But I'll need some obsidian!" Kurama said, before being handed an obsidian shard by one of the loyalist soldiers, which he used to stab into Kakeru's petrified area. After about five minutes of focusing his youkai into the sharp metal, Kurama removed it and gave a resigned sigh "Hey gaki, remember how Ishidate said that his powers would wear off in an hour if the stone wasn't broken or shattered. Well, I'm afraid that's already been done to his insides."

"What?"

"My youkai could heal this, but only if it's applied immediately. And from the way that the GI-Joes over here have worded it, the king's been like this for at least a few days. At this rate, I'd be surprised if he lasted another hour in this state." Kurama said somberly while giving the old man a somber look.

Kakeru then slowly opened his eyes, to see his son kneeling over him "You're home Michiru, and Hikaru as well. That's good, I was starting to get worried."

"Worry about yourself Otousan! You heard what the Pianist said!"

"How come you're the Pianist, Ichigo-san?" Itachi asked the biju, who wasn't really happy with the question.

"Because I play the piano Itachi, remember? Besides, it's a better nickname than Skirt Chaser."

"SHUT UP!"

"Tell me young people." The small argument stopped when the dying king brought his attention over to the squad of shinobi "You're the Konoha ninja I hired to protect my family correct? I see you've done a wonderful job. What is the state of our kingdom?"

"Not well. Soon the entire island will be under the control of Shabadaba and the Santatsu Foundation?" Korega informed his monarch, who seemed displeased by the news.

"That's not good. Tell me Michiru, what do think of this country of ours?"

"I think it's a wonderful place! It's beautiful, prosperous, and probably the most wealthy island in the South Blue!" Michiru said to his father.

"And what of Dressrosa? They were a very wealthy land, but they had a terrible dark side and were ruled by a pirate who's heart was as black as coal." Kakeru reminisced the news of Dressrosa's false peace having been revealed several months ago "You see Michiru, wealth isn't the thing that makes a country great, or what makes a person happy. A place of kindness and peace is the way of life I envisioned for the people of this island. I thought Shabadaba shared my vision, but he only cares about his own prosperity. If he's not stopped here, Crescent Moon will become a facist, pirate infested cesspool of crime and villainy. That is my only regret."

"Father, you sound just like Amayo. I wish I could understand what you're both trying to tell me." Michiru said in a low and shame-filled voice.

"I know you'll understand one day my son. And on that day you shall be one of the greatest kings Crescent Moon has ever seen. That is my last request of you. As of today, you are the true king. And Konoha shinobi, please look after them." Kakeru said, before exhaling one last time and permanently shutting his eyes. Upon the old man's passing the room grew deathly silent, with Michiru barely managing to squeak out a word.

"...no..."

* * *

Night had fallen over the land of Crescent Moon, and preparations were currently being made to evacuate the island and escape back to Shinobi Island. While the Konoha shinobi, especially Naruto, wanted to stay and fight against the Santatsu Foundation's grip on the island, they had been hired to protect Michiru and Hikaru from harm. So each of them mutually decided with the insurgent soldiers that they should make a tactical retreat and save the fight for Crescent Moon for another day.

While they made preparations to move under the cover of nightfall, Hikaru sat alone atop the small mountain, staring at the starry sky above him. He was broken from his lonely thoughts when Naruto joined him "We're gonna be heading out soon gaki. You'd better start coming down unless you wanna be left behind."

"Why don't we stay in fight?! I know we can win this with-"

"Don't get me wrong, I love to fight strong opponents and I'd really like to wring that little midget's neck!" Naruto growled angrily at the mere prospect of running away "But our job is to protect you and Oujisan, so we can't have you caught in the crossfire. Especially not with Snow Miser and Stone Miser fighting with Captain Mullet. I know you wanna make him pay for what he did to your grandfather, but don't worry, we'll get these bastards!"

"You know my grandfather was always really kind to me. He even made me my bow and taught me archery. He was the best." Hikaru thought of the deceased king while tears began to form in his eyes.

"I know what you mean. The man I considered my grandfather died in battle not long ago. In a world where I didn't have anyone and almost everyone I came across was out to get me, he was the one man I knew I could trust. But even though he's gone, I can still feel what he left behind. And I think that's a large part of what your grandpa was trying to tell you. Power alone can't make a person happy, but when you have someone you'd die fighting for, that's when you can feel truly happy."

"Do you still feel that way? Lonely I mean?"

"Not at all. I met people like him who didn't see me as some sort of monster. I just had to look a little is all." Naruto said while looked up at the sky himself "Once I met Zoro-niisan and Iruka-sensei, I knew there were people I really could count on in this world. Now I've got a lot of good friends, even annoying jerks like Itachi or Erosennin. And being engaged to the most amazing girl in the world helps quite a bit too!"

Hikaru immediately double took when Naruto told him of his engagement to Hinata "Really? I figured that girls would run away from you when they saw your pink jacket!"

"Don't push it gaki!"

* * *

Within another half hour, Kakeru had been buried and preparations had been made to escape to the southern cape of the island. Korega had made arrangements to receive a boat out of the country and back to Shinobi Island where the rightful heirs to the throne would receive asylum "Captain Korega, there's a ship just around the bay!" With this information in mind, the group made their way over to the bay where they were scheduled to go.

Except for Michiru, who sat against the trees of the nearby rainforest in a depressed manner. Noticing this, Chouji ran up to him and picked him up with his immense upper body strength "Come on Ousama! Holy shit he's even fatter than me! AH I JUST CALLED MYSELF FAT! WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME!"

"Get a move on! We've gotta get a move on before sunrise and...Oh crapsicles." Naruto groaned in annoyance when he saw that Lafitte had been standing on the bow of the boat, waiting for them this entire time. To make matters worse, his recently repaired ship was floating in the sea nearby, limiting if not completely cutting off their escape.

"You didn't think it would be that easy to get away from us did you Cinderface-kun?" Lafitte said while tap dancing on the wood of the ship with his cane "We were given direct orders to retrieve the previous royal family, and you won't be interfering."

"Well, at least it can't get any worse." Tenten sighed, only three Shotatsu with familiar spiky wigs jumped out of the forest and landed onto the beaches "I've got to learn to keep my mouth shut!"

Before they had time to react, Karenbana threw down an exploding kunai, forcing them back and leaving them face to face with the officers of the former Black Eel Pirates, Kongo, Karenbana, and Ishidate. Seeing their old enemy face to face for the first time in years, Kongo slurred in a deep tone "Been a while, hasn't it Cinderface? How's the Pirate Hunter doing?"

"Fine. But if you wanted to talk about the past you should have brought a kotatsu and a good bottle of sake. I'm more interested in how many times I'll have to kill that jackass before he stays dead!" Naruto pointed the tip of Kurama in Ishidate's direction.

The former pirate captain gave another smug grin before speaking "Let's just say my desire for revenge against you outweighs the desire of the Shinigami to pull me to Hell. But let's get to the real reason we came here. Hand over fatty and the gaki, and I'll consider settling the score between us later Cinderface!" Ishidate pointed to a fearful looking Michiru, who whispered into Naruto's hear in with a frightened tone.

"What did you do to make him so angry?"

"Put him in prison probably. He was a bounty hunter for six years after all." Tenten theorized in response to Michiru's question.

"Erosenpai, I need you to get Dr. Frank-N-Furter over there off our escape boat. Chouji, you get Oujisan and the gaki over to safe ground. Me and Tenten will take care of Team Rocket over here." Naruto said as he armed himself with his katana and Tenten pulled out her weapon sealing scrolls "Whatever you do, don't let Ishidate touch you with either of his hands. Cut them off the first chance you get!"

"You mean like this?"

 **"Boulder Smash"**

Before Naruto could even think, Ishidate had somehow sped behind him and tried to give him a hard right his notoriously muscular hands. However, Naruto was able to block him before that could happen and tried to counter with a slice from Azuma. Having focused his Grip-Grip Fruit power into both hands, Ishidate blocked the sword's blade, resulting a battle of claws and swords between the two of them "You didn't think I'd spend all that time in Impel Down just sitting-"

"I know, you got strong in prison and now you think you're gonna beat me. I've heard this whole spiel before, and I'm quite frankly sick of it. Let's just get to the part where kick your ass so I can move on with my life!" Naruto cut Ishidate's monologue off while keeping the offensive against him. That is until a large shadow loomed over him from behind.

"Naruto look out!" Tenten's warning came to late as Kongo managed to hammer down onto Naruto with his fists.

Kongo prepared to do more, only to find that there was only a splintered up log in Naruto's place "What the? A substitution?" Before the large man could start to look for the blonde swordsman, he found that Yamakawa-o had already been stabbed through his chest and Naruto was preparing to counter.

 **"Gyuki: Yuzume"**

After being cut by Naruto, Kongo dropped to his knees and coughed up blood, clearly weakened by the blow. Meanwhile, Tenten stayed on guard for the other enemy, only for Karenbana to appear right behind her "Feeling left out Missy? Don't worry, I can fix that!" Karenbana swung out a kunai at her, which Tenten tried to dodge but ended up getting cut on her arm anyways "Wait a minute, what's-"

"Like my poison? That exploding tag from earlier released a chakra poison that negates your fives senses and slows down your reflexes, which should be starting to affect just about now!" Karenbana revealed before focusing on Naruto and Kongo, the latter of whom was pulling something from his pockets. Realizing what he was about to do, Tenten tried to warn her squad member.

"Naruto! Look out!"

Kongo then spun around and threw several exploding tags at the swordsman, who was now being affected by the poisonous bomb. With his reaction time being slowed, Naruto was hit rather easily "Even the mighty Cinderface falls for it. I have to say Karenbana, we should have developed it six years ago!"

 **"Iron Kitsune Armor"**

Looking a bit beaten up, Naruto emerged from the smoke of the explosion with his hair now having been turned white and wearing a layer of red metal over him that acted as a protective second skin. This also gave him razor sharp claws which he used to jump Kongo. After having avoided some scratches from the slowed down jinchuriki, Kongo was soon backed up by Ishidate allowing them to double team the swordsman.

"What's the matter Cinderface? Can't take both of us at once?" Ishidate mocked his handicapped opponent, only to have to deal with Korega's saber.

"Fight us like men you cowards!"

While Tenten, Korega, and Naruto fought their opponents on the beach, Chouji ran away from the fight with Michiru in tow. However, he was quickly being pursued by Lafitte, who had taken to the sky to fight and landed on Chouji to knock him down. This didn't work for too long however, as his cape suddenly burst into black flames that were lit by the gaze of Itachi's Mangekyo Sharingan.

 **"Amaterasu"**

"Excellent, just excellent. I've always wanted to test the hypnotic powers of the Uchiha clan's sharingan against my own! But I'm afraid that at the moment I have more important things to take care of at the moment." Lafitte said as he picked up the terrified prince from Chouji's pinned down body, before making his escape in the air with his white wings.

"SOMEONE PLEASE HELP ME!"

 **"Expansion Jutsu: Arms"**

Before Lafitte could make his getaway official, Chouji grabbed one of his legs and began pulling him back down "I don't think so!"

"Great work Akimichi-san!" Itachi complimented Chouji on his thinking while running up the jounin's arm with a blade in hand. However, before he could further engage Lafitte, several glowing purple shards suddenly embedded themselves into both Chouji's and Itachi's backs. While Itachi would normally be able to dodge the attack with his Kenbunshoku Haki, the reflex slowing poison coupled with his wounds from fighting Soramaru made his susceptible, and he dropped back to the ground, while Lafitte flew away with a screaming Michiru.

 **"Gorgon Rain: Sand Style"**

Ishidate used the sand he'd kicked up during his fight with Korega, Ishidate launched his attack. Then, while Korega was distracted by the cries of Michiru, Ishidate took the opportunity to grab him from behind and use his Devil Fruit power to petrify the soldier. Taking his saber from the petrified corpse, Ishidate began mulling his handiwork "What a lovely expression. Why, I'd almost say it's a work of art! However, it's still rather ugly." It was then that he sliced Korea's body in half and shattered it.

"Captain Korega!"

"Well, would you look at that, one pest down and four to go. Anyways, I should probably take care of the kid so why don't we end this now Cinderface." Kongo mocked the very pissed off looking Naruto, only to realize his eyes were literally going red, as Naruto had gone into Breaking Blade mode at the sight of Korega's death. Before he had time to react, Naruto proceeded to cut him down.

 **"Ittoryu: Lion's Song"**

"All right Stone-teme, let's get one thing straight. Killing a man with his own sword, is something I can't possibly forgive!" Naruto said as he approached Ishidate, who seemed rather excited with the killing intent that the blonde swordsman was emitting.

"Yes, Cinderface! Come closer so that I can kill you too!"

"Bad idea!" Kongo said as he knocked out his leader with a swift chop to the neck. He then stared at Naruto with a fearful gaze before he began running away in the direction of the palace. Seeing her comrades retreat, Karenbana gave Tenten a wink before disappearing into the air herself.

* * *

"Well, that sucked." Itachi said as he and Chouji pulled the shards of sandstone from each other's backs. After Lafitte and Shabadaba's hired help retreated with their prisoner, the small group went to lick their wounds in a clearing of the forest nearby "So fearless leader, do you have any plan for how this mission should proceed?"'

Before Naruto could answer, a random resistance soldier spoke up "You shinobi can do whatever you want, but I think we should just cut our losses and find another way to get Hikaru-sama off the island."

"You coward! Are you suggesting we just abandon Michiru?"

"Well, what do you want us to do? Those Santatsu mercenaries were enough trouble, but dealing with Blackbeard Pirates is way more than we can handle."

"Hey, if you guys are done bitching, I have a suggestion." Naruto spoke up before pointing to Hikaru "At the moment, the gaki can pull rank over all of you. So I think it should be his decision whether we retreat or fight back should go to him."

With little hesitation, Hikaru stood up and exclaimed with determination in his voice "I want to fight. This is my home and I won't run away like a coward when I know we can win."

"Good choice kid." Naruto stood up, only to be confronted with protest.

"How do you even expect us to get into the palace? Even a fly couldn't get in!"

"Maybe we just need some sort of disguise?" Chouji suggested, only for him to see the performers of familiar circus exploring nearby "And I think I know where we can get them."

Having noticed and recognized the group as well, the Ringmaster approached "Thank goodness we found you. We haven't seen a single soul in the streets, and they turned us away at the listen here, I thought we were going to receive some sort of payment for this venture?!"

"You're right, you should be getting paid for coming all this way. In fact, if you do a small favor for us you could be getting paid extra." Itachi stepped in, planning to use his negotiation skills to get disguises for their charge on the royal palace.

"Good thing we brought the Skirt Chaser along after all I guess." Tenten said before facing Naruto "You got any sort of plan for this?"

"Sure do; cut Stone-teme and Mullet-teme into pieces!"

"THAT'S NOT A PLAN!" Chouji and Tenten both exclaimed in frustration as they smacked the blonde swordsman upside the head.

* * *

 **(A/N): Yes I know, this chapter took an incredibly long ass time. But as mentioned previously between school and work, I barely have time to write this damn story anymore. But fear not dear readers, as I still intend on rocking this story out to the end. Albeit, that should be pretty easy for the side story as it only has one chapter left before I switch hands back to Part of a Family and Ninja of Santoryu. And eventually Malevolence for anyone who reads that. On a side note, I have started writing Arc 3's first chapter and I guarantee that it will be one that you don't want to miss. At least, if you're willing to wait another month or two :'D**

 **. . .**


	3. Final Battle on Crescent Moon

**Disclaimer:** **I don't own Naruto or One Piece. If I did then I'd probably do a good Naruto movie!**

 **Greed: Like what?**

 **Skillet: Land of Snow, Road to Ninja, The Last, Will of Fire...**

 **Greed: Ah touché**

 **Side Story: Shichibukai of the Crescent Moon Kingdom**

 **Chapter 3: Final Battle on Crescent Moon**

* * *

The setting sun began to shade the skies of Crescent Moon a noticeable orange color as Michiru was forced into Shabadaba's chamber with his hired help and effeminate looking assistant. Kongo and Ishidate were currently healing from the wounds their fight on the beach, while Karenbana and Lafitte. After setting up the scaffolding and board intended for Michiru's execution, they removed the bag from his head and allowed him to see the height, causing the spoiled prince to panic "You've put me through quite a bit of trouble today you spoiled tub of lard!"

"Why are you doing this to me! You and Otousan were friends weren't you? How could you betray him like that?"

"Simple. That old fool was always droning on about using our nation's wealth to protect the people and it made me sick. Calling us friends is absolutely ridiculous!" Shabadaba laughed in Michiru's face "Making tax cuts for the poor and building them homes. Everyone knows the wealthy deserve such things more than anything!"

"But wanting to help people isn't a bad thing." Michiru said in a low tone of voice.

"Shut up Michiru! If I have to hear that old fool's blathering one more time I'll throw up! Everyone from the World Government to the Blackbeard Pirates know money is the true power in this world. Where do you think all these wonderful things come from? This country is the incredibly wealthy, and I want to use that wealth to become as fat and spoiled as you! The people shouldn't matter!" Shabadaba claimed as his minions merely looked on.

"Are you telling me you killed my father just to be rich?!" Michiru realized in disgust with the ugly looking man.

"There's no reason greater to do anything. And now that Kakeru's out of the picture, I will be king of this island! With the assistance of the Santatsu Foundation of course." Shabadaba gestured to the Shotatsu, who gave the man a small smug smile.

"No! I'll never let you be king!"

"Silly Michiru, you don't have a say in the matter! Let the execution begin!" Shabadaba stat back down on his thrown while his soldiers placed a noose around Michiru's neck and forced him onto the flimsy scaffolding that was to seal his fate "Now then, prove me right Michiru! And don't fall off to quickly if you would. I paid a lot for the front row seats to this show."

"No, you can't do this to me!" Michiru cried out in fear as the executioners began to turn the crank that tightened the noose, pulling the dethroned prince further across the board. He whimpered in fear as he felt the plank of wood get flimsier and more breakable as he moved along, before he nearly stumbled to the edge and fell off. However, to Shabadaba's disappointment he managed to regain balance and stop the fall right before the end of the plank.

It was then that Michiru saw something that would change his perspective; the beautiful hills and mountains of his homeland as the glowed from the setting horizon, and the vast city that the island held down below him. As his father's words echoed in his mind, Michiru felt his frantic and terrified breathing slow to a halt, as he began to calm down and stand up straight on the scaffolding, surprising Shabadaba.

This resulted in Michiru giving himself a stay of execution for several hours, as the famed moon of the island rose with the stars and the skies dimmed to twilight. While Shabadaba and his men began to doze off from boredom as Michiru remained unfaltering, a circus came to the gates led by a white haired pianist. Being the only Konoha shinobi that their enemies wouldn't recognize, Kurama, otherwise known as Ichigo Hatake, was chosen to lead the ambush.

However, the guards had different plans "We already told you circus freaks you aren't welcome here!"

"Now now, we just want to put on an introductory show for your new king. We're new to this island you see, so we think of this as a way to get our name out." Kurama spoke in to the guards with Hatake family dialect as he stepped up to explain, while a disguised Itachi stepped up as well and revealed his Mangekyo Sharingan to the guards. With the men under hypnosis, they were able to infiltrate the palace with little problem.

"What's with the circus performers?" Ishidate said with suspicion as he watched them come in.

"Who cares, might as well find some way to spice up this execution." Shabadaba nonchalantly said while picking his nose and flicking away his boogers "Now that's entertainment!"

The servants and soldiers of the palace, as well as those Shotatsu hired to assist in the coup came out to watch the circus led by Kurama and Itachi perform. However, the white haired man quickly disappeared, leaving Itachi to distract the enemy. While this was going on, Naruto, Tenten, and Chouji snuck in with a group of soldiers and Hikaru with intent on taking back the palace "All right, Oujisama's being held on the balcony. We'll have to make it up there before he can be executed!"

"Erosenpai should be making his move any second now. We've got this in the bag!" Naruto claimed.

Just as Naruto had said, Itachi stepped forward to the fountain after the performance of two comedians "We've reached the climax of our show ladies and gentlemen! For our grand finale, you'll see the true power of the Uchiha Clan!" Undoing his henge and revealing his sharingan, the guards realized they'd been duped one moment too late as Itachi caused a large dragon made of water to emerge from the lighted fountain.

 **"Water Release: Water Dragon Jutsu"**

"The Uchiha?" Shabadaba screamed in horror as Itachi flooded the courtyard.

"If he's here, then that means..." Ishidate realized Naruto's presence as an evil smile came to his face "Karenbana, Kongo, we've got some brats to kill!"

"But what about him!" Shabadaba loudly objected as he pointed at Itachi, only for Lafitte to suddenly grow wings and descend into the courtyard. After he and the circus performers dealt with most of the enemy soldiers and Shotatsu and their surprise attack, Itachi found himself face to face with the tap dancing former navigator of the Blackbeard Pirates, Demon Sheriff Lafitte.

"We never did finish our fight did we Uchiha? What do you say to a duel?"

* * *

The inner team began to hear the fighting raging outside, and took it as their cue to head further into the palace grounds. Despite now being armed with real and dangerous arrows, Hikaru still felt a bit scared of the fight to come. Seeing something was the matter, Naruto spoke to him "You ok gaki?"

"I'm fine. I just can't make this fear go away is all." Hikaru said with shame in his voice.

"No worries. If you aren't afraid of getting killed than odds are you aren't alive." Naruto told the young prince "Fear is a natural part of fighting, and it helps keep you from getting hit. But you still shouldn't let your fear control you. Then you'd be a coward."

"Let's go! With all the guards outside, the upper terrace should be unaffected!"

"Oh really?" Kongo suddenly stooped them in their tracks as he blocked off the hallway "I have to admit, Ishidate is one shrewd man. It's no wonder he was one of the most feared men in the West Blue at one point. But you took that away from us, and that's why I'm going to take you down Cinderface!"

Naruto clicked his swords from their sheaths in preparation to fight, only to have Chouji block him "Save your energy for the stone jerk Naruto. This guy's mine!"

"Are you seriously going to have the fatass do your dirty work for you Cinderface? This will be too easy!" Kongo cracked his knuckles, only to be launched several feet back by Chouji's enlarged fist.

 **"Expansion Jutsu: Bullet Punch"**

Using the opportunity that Akimichi heir gave them, the group made their way up the stairs and ran further into the palace. This left Chouji and Kongo alone to fight against one another. Spitting out a bit of blood left behind from the attack, Kongo glared at Chouji with bloodlust "I wanted to fight the Cinderface, but Ishidate would probably kill me if I got in the way again. I'll just use you for target practice!"

"Don't get cocky you bastard! I may not be as strong as my friends, but I'm still a jounin!" Chouji showed off his flak jacket "I noticed you never laid down that reflex poison you did earlier. Now I know for sure you'll stand no chance against me!"

"Don't flatter yourself fatass!"

"I'M NOT FAT I'M CHUBBY!"

 **"Expansion Jutsu: Titan Style"**

 **"Human Boulder"**

Chouji suddenly grew into giant who barely fit into the room before expanding his girth into the shape of a massive sphere which began rolling in Kongo's path, which managed to force the Shotatsu a few feet back before he managed to stop him. Once he managed to stop the spinning ball of chakra in his path, Kongo used his massive strength to lift Chouji up before slamming into the ground. Chouji reverted to his regular form and began groaning in pain from the broken ribs Kongo gave him.

 **"Gorilla Fist"**

Before his opponent could react, Kongo followed up his previous attack giving Chouji a strong fist to his core, which sent the jounin flying back. Presuming him to be dead, Kongo scuffed off his hands and began heading up the stairs "That was too easy. Might as well take out a few more of their men before they make it to Michiru." Kongo said before he suddenly felt his weight shift as he went flying back, as Chouji had grabbed the edge of the stairs and rolled it out like one would a dirty rug.

Kongo made a clean landing away from the now destroyed stairs, and gave his appointment a sneer "Interesting strategy their gaki. But how are you going to escape back to your friends now that you've destroyed the stairs?"

"I'm not the one who needs to escape this fight, you roided up bastard!" Chouji said as he focused chakra into his hand, before charging his opponent. Kongo managed to dodge Chouji's attack, but was suddenly hit was a ball of fire from Chouji's mouth before he had the chance to counter.

 **"Fire Release: Intelligent Hard Work"**

 **"Partial Leg Expansion Jutsu"**

The former pirate wasn't terribly affected by the torrent of fire, and blocked Chouji's enlarged leg when it nearly came crashing down onto him. This allowed him to grab hold of his ankle, and send the overweight jounin flying into the wall with a throw. However, Chouji was able to use his body fat to escape a serious blow, and only coughed up a small amount of blood. He then made a clone and focused chakra into his hair, making it noticeably sharp and spiky.

 **"Kage Bushin no Jutsu"**

 **"Expansion Jutsu"**

"Interesting trick, but it doesn't matter how many of you there are, if you're still just as weak!" Kongo said as the two bushin began to orbit around him and get closer and closer in before they attempted to crush the former pirate in between them.

 **"Double Human Boulder"**

 **"Iron Guard"**

Before Chouji and his copy could make impact, Kongo blocked the attack long enough to slow down their momentum and cause Chouji to revert back to his normal appearance. However, the damage was done to Kongo's hands, which were now bloodied and scratched up. Growling at the state of his hands, Kongo was distracted from Chouji charging towards him with intent to keep fighting. Kongo managed to catch him time to block the attack, before attempting to counter.

 **"Gorilla Fist"**

Chouji was struck in the face by Kongo's fist, but was unaffected and returned the attack with his own punch "Stop coming with fancy move names when you're really just punching shit!"

"Why you little brat!" Kongo moved to punch Chouji again, causing the jounin to cough up a bit more blood, only for Chouji to expand the size of both his arms and send them both into Kongo's chest. This caused the gigantic man to cough of some blood of his own and go flying back.

 **"Expansion Jutsu: Double Barrel Bullet Punch"**

 **"Spiked Human Boulder"**

Giving his opponent no time to react, Chouji expanded himself once again and sharpened his hair before running Kongo into the wall. After his transformation ran out, Chouji moved away from the now torn up wall in case Kongo was still able to fight. To Chouji's surprise, Kongo got back up "I've had with you shitty brats getting in our way. I'm ending this farce right now!" Focusing Busoshoku Haki into his fists, Kongo gave Chouji an evil look before charging forward. Having the foresight to understand that this was likely going to hurt, Chouji formed a giant wall of earth between them.

 **"Earth Release: Practice Brick Jutsu"**

 **"Mountain Gorilla Frenzy"**

Madly swinging his arms around, Kongo charged into wall of rock meant to guard Chouji and tore it down with relative ease. He then began pounding at Chouji with his Haki infused fists, beating his opponent like a sandbag, before throwing him up into the air. Leaping to Chouji in midair, Kongo grabbed hold of him, before proceeding to pile-driver him into the ground. With the entire upper half of his body being jammed into the ground and the lower half not moving at all, Kongo presumed his opponent to be dead. However, he didn't notice the wing like formation of chakra growing at Chouji's back.

"Well, that was entertaining at least. Now I have to figure a way back up there now that fatty's destroyed the stairs." Kongo pondered his situation, only to hear the sound of digging from behind him. He turned around to see that Chouji was still very much alive, a majority of his fat had turned to muscle, and he was now flaming with chakra. Including giant butterfly like wings that extended from his back.

"Rule #1 of surviving a fight in Konoha: Never Underestimate a Dead Last! Unless you want to die that is!"

"No way!" Kongo said in disbelief before angrily charging again "I'm the strongest!"

Kongo threw another Haki coated fist into Chouji's face through a right cross, but the man didn't budge or even have any reaction to the blow. It was at this moment that Kongo knew, that he could not under any circumstances win this fight. Seeing the man before him quiver in fear caused a small smirk come across Chouji's face "I knew it from the moment you ran away from Naruto earlier. You may look big and tough, but you're really just a big coward who'll run away at the first sign that he may not win. This fight was over before it began!"

Now about five seconds from pissing himself in terror, Kongo tried to run out of the palace as fast he could, only to have his escape attempt blocked by Chouji. Knocking his opponent into the air, Chouji jumped up himself, focusing both Earth and Fire chakra into his fist as he prepared to strike Kongo down "Stop your damn quivering! And face your defeat like a man bastard!"

 **"Lava Release: Butterfly Bullet Bombing"**

Chouji struck his opponent in the gut with his punch, sending the man flying down into a crater below. Landing nearby, Chouji checked to see if he was defeated and saw that Kongo was irrevocably dead, with scorch marks and bruises littering his body, along with his ugly brown wig being knocked from his head. Running out of chakra, Chouji reverted back to his usual appearance before collapsing to the floor in exhaustion "I guess I'm shot for now. The rest is up to you guys."

* * *

Hearing Chouji fight Kongo from the floor below, the group made their way further into the palace grounds. However, they still kept their guard up as they had no clue what to expect from their enemies or where they happened to be hiding. That is, until Tenten managed to detect a small figure cloaking themselves against the wall not too far away "Hey Naruto, I think we're being watched!"

"What makes you say that?" Naruto asked Tenten, before she suddenly threw a kunai against the wall, revealing the now opaque Karenbana.

"Just a hunch!"

"I'm impressed bunny girl. So tell me, how did you know I was here? I don't recall you knowing how to use Haki!" Karenbana mocked her opponent while sticking to the wall like a lizard.

"If you wanna keep yourself concealed, you should ease up on the perfume gaki." Tenten returned the jab as she armed herself with kunai and shuriken "Leave tiny over here to me busy. Go save Michiru!"

"I'm a gaki am I? For your information I happen to be 28!"

Karenbana flew from her position on the wall and landed on the ground next to Tenten, forming a small crater at her feet. She then drew a kunai out from sleeve, and tried to cut at Tenten with it, only for the weapon's mistress to easily block it with a kunai of her own. Tenten proceeded to counter the attack by throwing several shuriken at her opponent, forcing her to dodge. Karenbana recovered quickly and began engaging in close combat, which only made things easier for her opponent.

Summoning a small sickle to fight with, Tenten began to hack Karenbana, who narrowly managed to dodge but received several minor cuts. Karenbana attempted to defend with her kunai, only for Tenten to fake her out and reveal that her sickle was on a chain, which she threw before pulling back and catching Karenbana from behind. Forced to use her kunai to block the incoming sickle blade, Karenbana was left open for Tenten to strike her in the back with a swing from her club.

Stumbling back up after the shock of the blow to her spine, Karenbana quickly had to dodge again when Tenten summoned a staff and began attacking her with that _'How fast can this girl summon? It's like changing weapons is completely natural to her!'_

"What's the matter tiny? Aren't you going to use that reflex poison on me again? Or did you just run out?" Tenten mocked her opponent while beating her back with the staff, only to suddenly catch the aroma of something other than perfume in the air. Before she had time to react, Karenbana had already drawn another kunai and managed to get another cut in at her stomach. Realizing that the toxic gas had begun to take affect when Karenbana gave her an evil smirk, Tenten tried to think of a way around the problem only for Karenbana to disappear in a flurry of magenta flower petals.

 **"Hundred Blooming Flowers"**

"A genjutsu?" Tenten quickly gathered from the nature of the technique, only to start gaining sudden cuts across her body. While Tenten would normally be able to avoid such attacks, her slowed reaction time made them more difficult to dodge. Making the situation even more irritating was Karenbana's constant mockery.

"To think you were getting so confident with yourself bunny girl. Even if you did know where I was coming from, you still wouldn't have the reflexes to avoid me. My specialized toxins can make even the strongest warrior fall to my knees. How do you think we were so successful back in the day?" Karenbana laughed in her high pitched voice.

 _'Do these people ever shut up? Now I know what Naruto felt like when he was fighting Neji.'_ Tenten internally groaned, ignoring the pain that Karenbana's kunai gave her and arming herself with more shuriken _'All right, let's think. It doesn't matter how invisible this genjutsu is making her or slow this poison is making me if I can just hit her. If I summon enough weapons in a big enough range, then she should be stuck. I don't think that the Rising Twin Dragons will be enough to cover it, so I'll have to take these out for a quick test run.'_

"Running out of steam? That's a shame, because I was just starting to have fun!" Karenbana continued to mock her opponent, only for Tenten to suddenly and rather literally burst into flames.

 **"Exploding Dragon Strike"**

Canceling her genjutsu and moving back to avoid the flames, Karenbana's smug smile now seemed to hold a bit more irritation "Nice try, but I know all about that little trick you used on Blackbeard's Fifth Ship. You can't fool me like that!" Karenbana prepared to reactivate her illusion and continue the fight, only for a slim and bloody figure to suddenly come crashing through one of the nearby windows and come to a screeching landing on the floor. To Karenbana's shock and horror, the figure was actually a burned and defeated Lafitte.

"Lafitte? But you're with Blackbeard! How could this happen?" Karenbana shook Lafitte by the collar of his shirt.

" _Damn...Uchiha...brat!"_

"Looks like the Skirt Chaser took care of business. Now focus on me tiny!" Tenten called over Karenbana's attention from midair, now holding a large green summoning scroll in her arms. Letting the scroll go and open in the air, Tenten smirked as it began to glow with a radiant white light "This fight is over now!"

"I hope you mean over for you!" Karenbana tried and failed to be witty as she briefly forgot about Lafitte with the author and reactivated her genjutsu.

 **"Hundred Blooming Flowers"**

 **"Manipulated Tools: Heavenly Chain Disaster"**

Just as Tenten had predicted, her slowed reaction time and Karenbana's illusions did little to help her situation as dangerous weapons rained down from the scroll as white light, littering the palace floor. The former pirate only had a few seconds to let out a shriek of fright before being impaled and killed by the shower of weapons. Landing shortly afterward, Tenten observed her handiwork and sighed "Well that kind of sucked. I knew I should've fought that big guy."

"I see you and Akimichi-san have already ended things up here." Itachi grabbed Tenten's attention as he climbed through the broken window he'd made with Lafitte "I have to say, seeing just what your capable of only makes you even more enticing!"

"Give me a break Skirt Chaser. Anyway, how did you manage to beat Lafitte. He's supposed to be a big shot in Blackbeard's crew right?" Tenten asked the Uchiha clan prodigy, who quickly answered.

"Well, it goes like this." Itachi began his tail, while discreetly wiping away the small amount of blood that was dripping from his eye.

* * *

"We never did finish our fight did we Uchiha? What do you say to a duel?" Lafitte asked while tap dancing in the puddle that Itachi had left behind during his attack, much to the Uchiha's confusion.

"Um, okay. But before we start fighting there's a bit of advice I should probably give you. You really should watch where you're standing." With his sharingan now flaring, Ichi performed a series of hand seals and released a sticky liquid from his mouth that mixed with the water that currently drenched the palace grounds. This stuck Lafitte to the ground and made it near impossible for him to use his wings to fly away.

 **"Water Release: Starch Syrup Capturing Field"**

Itachi smiled as he captured his opponent in a tight spot, only to read that Lafitte was about to pull a weapon from his right pocket. Now brandishing a pistol, Lafitte began taking shots at Itachi who dodged the bullets with ease. Being proactive in the fight Itachi lunged forward to knock the pistol from the Lafitte's hand and begin his offensive by pulling out a small sword and lunging at the pirate. However, Lafitte snapped his fingers before snapping his fingers and somehow pulling himself away from the sticky substance holding him to the ground.

 **"Dusk till Dawn"**

"What?" Itachi said in shock as the man somehow removed himself from the trap with ease, before he was forced to block midair kicks from Lafitte. However, this didn't last as the ground below him suddenly melted into a putty like substance, giving Lafitte the opening to kick him in the dead center of his face. This sent the Uchiha flying back, giving Laffite yet another opening to attack by firing purple feathers at his opponent. Itachi managed to dodge each of them before releasing a breath of fire at the midair Lafitte.

 **"Fire Release: Phoenix Flower Jutsu"**

Since Lafitte didn't bother dodging the attack, the fireball hit its mark and engulfed him in flames. However, to Itachi's surprise, Lafitte landed on the ground and shook off the fire like it was nothing "You're going to have to do a lot better than that if you want to beat me Uchiha." Lafitte mocked him with a smirk on his pale face.

"I haven't begun to fight yet. Let me show you the true power of the Uchiha clan." Itachi glared at the man with his mangekyo sharingan now turned on, preparing to use his tsukuyomi to end the fight in an instant. Only for absolutely nothing to happen _'Wait a minute, why aren't my sharingan working? I can't have run out of chakra already.'_

Before Itachi could comprehend the situation, he felt Lafitte shoot him in the back out of nowhere. This was especially curious as another Lafitte was standing right where he was before "What the hell? You shouldn't be able to perform the Kage Bushin much without me noticing!"

"You think that I can't make a clone just because I'm not a ninja. South Blue racism at its finest there!" Lafitte smirked as he drew another pistol from his side, with him and his clone now double teaming the wounded Itachi. This didn't last, as despite the bullet hole in his side Itachi was able to move quick enough to dispatch the clone in a puff of smoke, before flipping back over to the real Lafitte. Attempting to bring his sword down onto the former sheriff, Lafitte simply caught the blade with the tip of his finger before somehow extending his tongue into a long metal point.

This attack managed to graze Itachi's shoulder causing him to land back on the ground where he began to question himself _'What's happening here? I should have been able to predict his attacks with my Haki? Could they be using that reflex slowing gas again? No, I would have smelled it.'_

"You know Uchiha, during a fight it's rather rude to space out!" Lafitte said as he threw a punch at Itachi, who was now somehow paralyzed and forced to take the hit to the face. Spitting out the blood in his mouth from the blow, Itachi glared at his opponent who had not even a scratch on them "I guess the Uchiha clan isn't so mighty after all if this is all their prodigy is capable of."

"Damn Santatsu bastards. I can never forgive you for what you did!"

"You say that as if you can be forgiven for your sins Itachi." A new yet familiar voice said in a low growl. In shock, Itachi turned to see his young brother Sasuke approaching him with his sharingan on and a golden lance being produced from his hand "And this time, my hatred will succeed over you!"

"Sasuke?" Itachi cried in shock before dodging the tips the lance Sasuke had aimed for his head. Knocking the weapon out of Sasuke's hands with a kick, Itachi retaliated with shuriken which Sasuke dodged and countered with a golden fist. Itachi managed to block the attack with his sword and began speaking to his disgraced younger brother "What are you doing on this island? You should be in Impel Down right now?"

Before Sasuke could answer, Lafitte fired another shot into Itachi's side while he was distracted "Don't forget I'm here too Uchiha. You really should be more aware of your surroundings." Lafitte mocked his opponent while Sasuke capitalized on Itachi's brief moment of weakness by delivering a hard right into his stomach.

 **"Superiority Hammer"**

Itachi didn't give Sasuke the opportunity to resume the attack, and avoiding the bullets being fired upon him by Lafitte, continued the conversation by trying to explain the truth "Sasuke, I wasn't the one responsible for our clan's genocide! The Santatsu Foundation was to blame!"

"Liar! I saw it with my own two eyes! And I'll use these two eyes to fulfill my destiny!" Sasuke refused to listen and forced Itachi back into the defensive position . However, Itachi noticed something odd as while he was parrying away Sasuke's strikes, he noticed that he had made a small red cut on his cheek. This didn't matter much though, as Lafitte took another opportunity to attack from behind, shooting a small yet powerful beam from the tip of his finger.

 **"Pacifista Bomb"**

This attack managed to bring Itachi to his knees, panting and clutching the wound as Lafitte and Sasuke stood over him "Don't you get it Uchiha? This sea will be under our heels no matter how much you resist. The only real option you have is to surrender."

"Nice speech, real original for a cheap sentai villain. But even so, I've got you figured out." Itachi said as he picked his sword up and prepared to fight.

"Very well. Sasuke-san, you're free to take of the rest."

Sasuke then proceeded to draw a kunai and approach his beaten older brother with killing intent cloaking his entire body "All my hatred, all my power, you will feel the wrath of an avenger today Itachi!" The mad Uchiha screamed as prepared to bring down the blade. But suddenly, Itachi stabbed himself in the side with his own sword, causing a large amount of pain. It was then that the world around him literally shattered to reveal a similar world, but one with many differences.

These were that the only real wound that Itachi had was the one he'd just inflicted on himself, and that Lafitte was still stuck in the syrup "No. How could you have broken my hypnosis so easily?"

"Do your research dumbass. Sasuke is a logia type so he wouldn't have bled unless I used Haki. Your hypnosis is rather novice level." Itachi stood back up and glared at his trapped opponent.

Despite initially looking fearful of Itachi, Lafitte quickly regained his confidence "No matter, I'll just trap you again! You can only stab yourself so many times before you end up bleeding out!"

 **"Dusk Till-**

Before Lafitte could snap his fingers and restart the hypnosis, Itachi ran up and gripped both his hands so tight that they broke almost immediately. While the former policeman was screaming in pain, Itachi took out a small sake jar which burst into flames in Itachi's hands "Now then, how about I show you how strong I am in reality." Itachi swung the blade of fire into Lafitte, tearing him from the ground and sending him flying through one of the palace windows.

 **"Sword of Totsuka: Sake Cannon"**

Being sure that Lafitte wouldn't be coming back, Itachi clutched his self inflicted wound before heading into the palace "Guess I'd better go check on the others now. Pretty sure they did fine."

* * *

Due to the interference by his subordinates, Naruto and the others made it up to the palace rooftop with ease. Despite this, the blond swordsman remained on guard with all three of his swords, even as they saw Shabadaba cowering with his co-conspirator up above "The Cinderface made it up here?!"

"All right you ugly bastard, time to pay for ruining my easy job!" Naruto ran yup the staircase leading to the throne room, only for Ishidate to fly down and attempt to pin him with his Devil Fruit enhanced grip. Using his Haki though, Naruto saw the attack a mile away and deflected it with Kurama "How many times do I have to kick your ass before you stay down?"

"I won't stay down until you die." Ishidate said in a low growl while other shotatsu and Shabadaba's guards came out from the doors behind him. While they surrounded the small rebel group, Shabadaba began to laughingly mock them from his perch.

"Don't you get it Cinderface? With the Santatsu Foundation on my side, any rebellion you have planned will be doomed from the start!"

"Not quite." Naruto armed himself with his swords before looking at his allies and warning them "Get down!"

 **"Tatsu Maki"**

Naruto's spinning attack proceeded to blow a large number of the enemy soldiers away, leaving only an enraged Ishidate still standing. Focusing even more energy into his arms than before, Ishidate charged Naruto from behind screaming like a madman "CINDERFACE! MY REVENGE IS NIGH!" Before anything could be done about it though, Chāmu had already ran up and tackled Ishidate to the ground himself.

Taking the opportunity, Naruto stole a sword from one of the fallen enemy soldiers and used his Jinchuriki powers to eat it down to the hilt. He then focused the surplus of youkai into his skin, causing a layer of red steel to seep out of his pores and form a thin layer of armor around his body and his hair to turn white, before focusing Busoshoku Haki into the red armor. This caused his height and muscle mass to grow, along with turning the armor gray and his hair even spikier and red.

 **"Iron Kyojin Armor"**

Before Ishidate had time to react to his opponent's new transformation, Naruto had already swung his sword down hard enough to where it created a massive cloud of dust that blocked his vision. When it finally cleared, he saw that Hikaru, the soldiers, and Chāmu were making their escape. However, this didn't really matter to Ishidate as he simply turned his attentions back to Naruto. As you can imagine, this didn't please Shabadaba.

"What are you doing you fool? Go after that brat Hikaru!" Shabadaba screamed at Ishidate from his throne.

"SHUT UP! I'LL KILL HIM FOR ALL THE HUMILIATION HE'S CAUSED ME!"

"You kill me? Awfully big claim for a small frog. I'll end this in one stroke."

Naruto said as he sheathed two of his swords and raised up Kurama. This only managed to piss off Ishidate even more as he punched the ground and sent several large pieces of stone flying. Now levitating these slabs, he tore them apart and sent pieces flying at Naruto who merely deflected them. Getting more enraged by the second, Ishidate flew down himself with intent to ram himself into Naruto, only for the swordsman to leap out of the way. The insane shotatsu then used his powers to create a giant stone fist from the ground with intent to crush Naruto.

 **"Titanic Crush"**

 **"Sanjuroku Pound Ho"**

While in midair, Naruto sent a slash downward that was enhanced by the strength of his armor and tore through the attack and landed a direct hit on Ishidate. Once he'd made his way back down, Naruto saw that he'd put a dead Ishidate in a crater buried by his own rubble with a large and bloody slash on his chest, and that his red wig had fallen off revealing short white hair. Transforming back to normal, Naruto glared at his fallen opponent before cutting off both his arms just in case he wasn't dead "You're just a small frog in a pond to big for you to possibly understand."

"NO WAY!" Shabadaba said in horror as he saw his strongest man so easily defeated. However, this horror turned to excitement once he heard the board holding up Michiru begin to break "Yes! Yes! Just fall already!"

Michiru heard the board breaking as well, but accepted his fate as he looked up at the crescent moon above "Hikaru, please take care of yourself." It was at this point that the thin board finally snapped under his weight, resulting in the rope around his neck tightening. Shabadaba's joy turned out to be short lived though, as Hikaru used the tower adjacent to them as a jumping point with Chāmu before bring an arrow that pierced the noose and freed his father from the scaffolding.

"NOOOOOOOOOOO! YOU STUPID BRAT!"

While Shabadaba screamed in frustration, Naruto used a set of kage bushin to catch them before cutting off the rope around Michiru's neck "You guys are seriously more trouble than your worth!"

"Indeed they are." Itachi said while he, Chouji, and Tenten made their way up to the palace rooftop, with Kikki on the former's shoulder "We've taken care of the others #9. I presume that Ishidate is done for?"

"You bet Erosenpai. And what do you mean you took care of it? Last I saw you were fighting a literal tree!"

"I was under hypnosis!"

"Naruto-senpai!" Hikaru yelled, grabbing all of their attentions "I'll never forget what you've done for me today!"

Meanwhile, Shabadaba made his attempt at sneaking out while everyone was distracted. This didn't work, as a very angry Michiru spotted him "Shabadaba! I'm gonna kick your ass you bastard! Get back here!"

"No! Wait please, I can explain!" Shabadaba cowardly squealed as Michiru chased him and his co-conspirator, much to the amusement of the others.

"Go Ousan! Get that little shit!" Naruto said to the angry Michiru, before turning to the shotatsu and soldiers who'd allied with Shabadaba "Now then, under the authority given to me by the World Government, consider yourselves under arrest once the Marines get here!" Naruto angrily glared at the men as he approached them, only to feel something biting into his leg, before he was thrown into the palace wall.

He then saw that his leg had been turned to stone by Ishidate, who had focused his Devil Fruit power into his tongue "CINDERFACE! CINDERFACE! CINDERFACE!" He then proceeded to bite into stumps where his arms used to be, creating new stone ones with a spikier appearance and turning the rest of his body to stone as well, with the orange glowing eyes that appeared when his Devil Fruit was activated now popping up all over his body and long green hair growing in the place of his usual red wig.

 **"Michelangelo's Inferno"**

"Yes! That's the spirit Ishidate! Now kill Michiru and Hikaru!" Shabadaba chuckled as he hid behind a now completely insane Ishidate, who seemed entirely focused on the blonde target of his vengeance.

"CINDERFACE! CINDERFACE! CINDERFACE! CINDERFACE! CINDERFACE! CINDERFACE! CINDERFACE! CINDERFACE! CINDERFACE! CINDERFACE! CINDERFACE! CINDERFACE!"

"Looks like he's only mentally capable of saying my epithet now. Next thing you he'll have some stupid backstory about me crying next to him as a baby." Naruto continued to snark despite the pain in his leg.

"That's not the important thing #9! How are you going to fight with your leg petrified like that!" Itachi said in horror while Naruto took out one of his swords.

"I'll just have to cut it off."

"THAT'S A HORRIBLE IDEA! CAN'T YOU COME UP WITH SOMETHING LESS PERMANENT!" Tenten proceeded to smack the swordsman over the head.

"I have an idea!" Michiru approached them with a suggestion in mind "I'll carry him over and throw him when we get close enough!"

Meanwhile, Shabadaba was still intent on getting the maddened Ishidate to kill the remaining members of the royal family "Go for Kakeru's blood, forget the demon brat! I hired your filthy organization to do my bidding in exchange for support, so you'd better hold your end of the bargain!"

"CINDERFACE! CINDERFACE! CINDERFACE!" Ishidate screamed in the king's face before turning his attention back to Naruto who was now riding on Michiru's back. Grinning a mad grin, Ishidate removed another slab from the ground below him and fired it on them, embedding several stone shards into Michiru's body as he ran. With their pace slowed down, Ishidate approached with every intent on killing them both, only Chāmu to bite into him from behind and Kikki to start scratching at each of his glowing orange eyes.

Seeing the pain in his father's expression, Hikaru pleaded with him "Otousan, you can do this! Chouji, Tenten, Itachi, Kikki, Chāmu, Naruto! They've put their lives on the line for us! We owe it to them, to stand and fight!" With his young son's words echoing in his mind, Michiru let out a primal scream as he ran closer and closer to the preoccupied Ishidate. By the time the former pirate captain managed to get the animals off of him, it was far too late.

"NOW!"

 **"Asura"**

On Naruto's command, Michiru used all his remaining strength to throw him into the air while the swordsman suddenly grew three heads and six arms, giving him the appearance of a war god. Throwing Kikki and Chāmu from his now stone body, Ishidate only had a moment before Naruto cut into him with all nine of his swords.

 **"Kyutoryu: Ichibugin"**

Now with nine slashes glowing green across his steadily cracking body, the dying Ishidate only had time to scream out one final word "CIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINDEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEERFAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACEEEEEE" It was then that Ishidate's body broke down and exploded in a flash of green light that briefly lit up the night sky around the palace.

"Please tell me that bastard's dead now. If I have to hear his stupid ass scream one more time I'll lose it!" Naruto said while lying against the palace ground.

"Trust me, I don't think he's coming back after that." Hikaru said to the exhausted swordsman, before noticing the crying Shabadaba near Ishidate's body "Hey Skirt Chaser, how much more will we have to pay you guys to kick his ass?"

"Free of charge gaki." Itachi said with an evil smile, as he picked up a nearby metal fencepost that was ripped from the bricks during the battle.

"You stupid ripoff foundation! How am I supposed to become king now?" Shabadaba sobbed in anger and frustration, only to sense killing intent behind him from Chouji and Itachi. Now very afraid for his well being, he tried to haggle "Good evening gentlemen, how much could I interest you in assassinating the royal family of Crescent Moon?"

Itachi didn't seem interested and only glared at the now dethroned king "Pick a body part Fatass."

"I'm not fat I'm chubby!" Chouji said angrily before he and Itachi began to brutally attack Shabadaba for attempting the coup and wasting their time.

"Well that was fun, who's up for some ramen?" Naruto jokingly said before coughing up some blood. However, the blood was scarily strange with a white color and red splotches "...What the?"

* * *

A few days later once the Konoha shinobi had recovered and Michiru had officially been coronated as king, the Marines had arrived to take in those involved in the coup dentate and escort the ninja back home to Shinobi Island. The Blackbeard Pirates had managed to escape Marine custody to fight another day, but the others including Shabadaba and all of his coconspirators had been arrested by the Marines and were currently being taken into custody.

"You can't do this to me, I am the king of this island!" Shabadaba kicked and screamed as he was dragged off to his new holding cell by marines, while the others happily watched.

"Sir Naruto, we'll have him placed on the first level of Neo Impel Down on your orders. The trip back to Shinobi Island shouldn't take more than a day."

"That's good to hear. I have a feeling I'll need some blood work done." Naruto said to the man, who only had more information for him.

"Actually, we'll only be able to return your subordinates to the island. I'm afraid that you and the rest of the Shichibukai have been called to meeting by the Fleet Admiral concerning the Santatsu Foundation."

"...You cannot be serious right now." Naruto groaned in irritation "Just when I was looking forward to being home I get more work dropped on me."

"And by home, I presume you mean Hinata." Tenten lightly teased the blonde haired swordsman.

"Hey Naruto." Hikaru got the blonde's attention "I won't ever forget what you've taught me. "

Naruto grinned at him and his father and said "Damn straight gaki You don't forget that either Ousan." Naruto referred to Michiru by new title.

"I don't intend to Cinderface-senpai. I've even decided to work off all this fat! From now on it's fifty push ups, fifty sit ups, fifty squats, and 10 kilometers every day!" Michiru declared proudly "I'll even visit Amayo again now that I know what's really important! Just know that you and other Konoha shinobi are always welcome on Crescent Moon!"

* * *

Deep in the bowels of Neo Impel Down, lay a blindfolded prisoner chained to the wall after his daily torture had ended in the newly renovated Blazing Hell. He had numerous scars and burns from his experience in the prison, but the only one that truly angered him was a long cross shaped one on his arm. This prisoner was Sasuke Uchiha, who was given a life sentence after attempting to murder the Godaime Kazekage and frame Naruto for the murder.

Since his imprisonment, all the former heir could think about was getting his revenge on both Naruto and Itachi after his planned breakout. These feelings only increased upon learning that Naruto's old brother Yahiko Namikaze had recently been locked up in Eternal Hell, while Naruto had been promoted to jounin shortly afterward. He was broken from his silent thoughts of malice and hatred when he heard the inhuman footsteps of something walking up to his cage.

"Greetings Sasuke Uchiha. I've come to deliver a message from the Santatsu Foundation." The being spoke in a raspy voice. Though Sasuke couldn't see it, the being had a very alien appearance with dark green skin with black spots, an orifice like mouth, a large v-shaped crown with a black pod in the center, and a long needle like tail.

"Who the hell are you?" Sasuke asked through the pain of his aching body.

"I am the fifth strongest Nitatsu of the Santatsu Foundation, Cell Frankenstein. And Roronoa Naruto is soon to die."

* * *

 **(A/N): Anyone surprised I'm still alive. It feels like forever since I've updated anything, and it will likely continue to be that way with college and work eating up most of my time. But the good news is, now that the side story is good and done, Arc 3 should be up and running by the end of the month. That is assuming I'm not killed by the two exams I'll have to worry about this week. Definitely not looking forward to that mess. But I digress. I'll try to speed up my updates the best I can the following year. I hope you all enjoyed this little side venture and I hope you look forward to Arc 3.**

 **. . .**


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